CHAPTER TEN: PROPER PROTOCOLS

Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley's Dormitory Room

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland

19 November 1993

Ron paced his dorm room and tried to resist the urge to pull out his hair. He wanted to strangle Malfoy - no, punch Malfoy. The blond boy was completely and utterly infuriating, and Ron didn't think he could take it any longer. They'd just finished their first Quidditch match of the season - Slytherin absolutely steamrollered Hufflepuff - and Malfoy was trying to take all the credit. The entire Slytherin common room had just be regaled by '100 Great Chaser Moves by Draco Malfoy' which was quickly followed up by '100 Times Ronald Weasley Utterly Failed'. Ron knew all of it was lies, but it didn't stop it from making him angry.

After last year's chess showdown, Malfoy had been forced to lay off making fun of Ron or his family for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, that provision didn't apply to their third year. Malfoy kept needling him, and Ron was quickly running out of patience. He wasn't desperate or weak enough to go to Percy, but he didn't know how much longer he could keep up the guise of nonchalance.

Ron slumped forward, chin in his hands. It wasn't fair. It really wasn't fair, and the worst part was that he could do nothing about it.

The curtains around Ron's bed rustled.

"Ron, you there?"
"Yeah."

"You know no one agrees with all the shite Malfoy's spewing, right?"

"Yeah."

Silence hung in the air.

"Doesn't mean I should have to listen to it," Ron mumbled.

"Yeah...I just wanted to let you know no one believed Malfoy. Everyone knows he's the worst one on the team."

"Thanks, Harry."

"Do you wanna come back to the common room?"

Ron sighed. "I'm going to stay here. I just need some time alone."

"Okay."

Harry walked off, and Ron flopped over onto his stomach as an empty feeling settled in his heart. He was going to have to deal with gits like Malfoy for the rest of his life, and nothing he could do could change it. The thought was depressing, and Ron buried his face in his pillow, wishing he could get away from it all, even if it was only for a moment. He couldn't do that anymore than he could build a golden stairway into the heavens. Fortune didn't favor poor boys like Ron.

A tear trickled down Ron's cheek, and he brusquely wiped it away. He wouldn't cry. His sadness meant a win for Malfoy, and Merlin be damned Ron wouldn't let the viper win. Ron lifted his head off the pillow, then sat up, squaring his shoulders. He would have to grow stronger. He would have to grow tougher. There was no way he would let Malfoy, with his smarmy attitude and self-centered arrogance, make Ron feel inferior ever again.

Ron stood up, and stared down his reflection in the mirror before heading back down to the common room. He'd show Malfoy who the superior wizard was.

Letters Sent Between 19 November and 20 November 1993

Dear Son,

I am quite pleased to hear that your studies are progressing nicely. I know you will challenge yourself academically and thereby continue your trajectory to success. How are your friends doing? I hope your roommates have been pleasant - I know you were a mite concerned about the behavior of one of them.

The time for mourning has since passed. I have decided to reach once again into the dating pool. I had been considering Lord Yaxley or Lord Avery, but I must say that Lord Black has a certain appeal to him. Your new stepfather must be perfect, sì?

Keep your eyes open, and your heart wary.

Love as always,

Mother

Dear Mother,

This is delightful news, and my heart rejoices for you. I could not help but note that you decided not to pursue Lord Shacklebolt or Lord Gaunt - I believe this to be wise. Lord Shacklebolt is too far estranged from our plans to be of use, and Lord Gaunt shrouds himself in mystery. I wish you the best of luck in your wooing, and may Frig and Tiw watch over you.

Theo is doing well, and our side of the room is actually quite clean. It's probably not up to your standards, but it's way better than Vince and Greg's room, and we passed Professor Snape's room inspection on the first try. Draco didn't, though. He leaves his socks everywhere and it's a real pain in the arse to get him to clean up. I also find crumpled bits of his parchment on my desk all the time because he can't be bothered to walk across the room to the rubbish bin. Do you have any good ideas to get him to clean up? Theo and Harry were working on a plan to fix Draco's socks, but I don't think it's going to be successful.

I agree with what you said about my new potential stepfather. Lord Black would be rather perfect, especially since he's Harry's godfather, and that would make Harry and I practically brothers.

I eagerly await news of your courting.

Your loving son,

Blaise

Maura -

I know of a quiet tea shop located off Diagon Alley. If it is convenient for you, I would like to meet you there on Wednesday at 3 in the afternoon.

Regards,

Sirius

Dear Sirius,

That sounds lovely. I will see you on Wednesday at three.

Yours,

Maura

Hogsmeade

Scotland, United Kingdom

20 November 1993

Harry's face split into a happy grin as his eyes tried to take in everything at once. He and Ron had already decided to go to Zonko's first, then check out the Shrieking Shack before meeting up with Hermione, Millie, and Lily at Honeydukes and the Three Broomsticks. The girls had decided to stop by Dervish and Banges since Hermione wanted a new book, then Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop to get new quills and ink.

Harry and Ron happily romped around Zonko's for at least an hour, and emerged several Galleons poorer and arms full of joke products, including several Hiccough Sweets that Ron wanted to experiment with. Harry looked at the bag thoughtfully.

"Ron?"

"What?"

"Do you reckon we could fit a Hiccough Sweet inside a chocolate truffle?"

Ron rummaged through his bag, and pulled out a sweet. "Er, maybe? Dunno how you'd get it inside, though. Why?"

Harry snickered. "You know, I bet we could just melt some chocolate over the Hiccough Sweet and no one would know the difference. Well, maybe Malfoy would, if we fed them to him. And by feed them to him, I mean leave them where he'd find them and eat them."

Ron chuckled. "That's an idea. Thing was, I was thinking of seeing if we could modify the Hiccough Sweets to do other things. I'm thinking Fred and George could help me with that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They like to experiment."

Harry grinned. "Wicked."

"I know. C'mon, let's go check out the Shrieking Shack before we have to make our way back down to Honeydukes."

The Shrieking Shack turned out to be a long walk and a big disappointment, but Harry and Ron quickly consoled themselves with the thought of all the sweets they could buy in Honeydukes.

The rich scent of chocolate enveloped Harry's senses the moment he and Ron stepped through the shop door. The shop's walls were lined with colorful jars of candies, and massive lumps of chocolate and fudge sat behind glass walls in the front counter.

"Ooh, look," Harry said, grinning from ear to ear, "free samples!"

Sure enough, there were a variety of samples, ranging from standard sweets like milk chocolate and caramels to strange sweets like cockroach clusters and fudge flies.

Ron made a face. "I think I'll stay away from the cockroach clusters, thanks."

Harry studied them carefully. "Yeah, I think I will, too. Let's go over there. I want to get a

couple of chocolate frogs."

"Still missing Merlin?"

"Yeah."
"Well, he's an ultra-rare card. I don't even have him yet."

"Maybe I'll get him this time."

"Or maybe you'll get Morgana again."

"Ugh, I have five of her."

"I have seven."

"Oomph, that's rough." Harry grabbed three chocolate frogs, and a small carton of Fizzing Whizbees. "Hey, look, there's Hermione, Millie, and Lily."

They made their way over to where Hermione was geeking out over Toothflossing Stringmints.

"I've got to get some of these for Mum and Dad," Hermione was saying eagerly. "They're so clever, Mum will absolutely love them. Oh, hello, Harry, Ron."

"Hi," Ron said awkwardly. "Have you guys seen the levitating sherbet balls yet?"

Hermione's eyes grew wide. "Nooo."

"Well, they're over here, and Percy said that you'll actually float off the ground when you eat them."

The five of them trouped over to the sherbet ball display, and each of them purchased at least one. Harry bought three, because he wanted to have one in each flavor. After perusing the rest of the store - why would anyone want Acid Pops or Blood Lollies? - the group headed over to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer.

"So," Lily began once they were all clutching mugs of foamy butterbeer, "what does everyone think of Hogsmeade?"

Hermione beamed. "It's great! I got so many new books today!"

Millie and Lily looked at each other and groaned. "We know, Hermione."

Hermione pouted. "Look, it's not my fault that all of books looked interesting!"

"Gosh, you're such a Ravenclaw."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Harry, Ron, how was your day?"

"Zonko's was awesome!" Harry enthused. "Ron and I got so many great joke products."

Millie snickered. "I'm guessing Malfoy is going to have a rough time of it?"

Harry pasted an innocent expression onto his face. "Why Millie, how could you ever say

such a terrible thing? It's not like I've been planning on pranking Malfoy all year or anything."

Ron snorted in laughter, and Harry sniffed in mock hurt.

"You wound me," Harry said dramatically.

They all dissolved into laughter, and Harry grinned. It was good to have friends.

Wizarding Studies Classroom

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland

24 November 1993

"Good afternoon, class," Professor Rookwood began as he surveyed the room, mentally taking attendance. "Today we will delve further into the rich history of Old Magick in Great Britain, starting by what we know about Stonehenge so far. Who remembers from last class the purpose of Stonehenge? Miss Bones?"

"Stonehenge was used for ritual magic."

"Correct, one point to Hufflepuff. Now, Stonehenge, or Ciorcal cloch Mór, as it is called in the old tongue, is an ancient ritual circle…"

Professor Rookwood began explaining the significance of ritual magic to British wizards, and Ron tuned him out a bit. Wizarding Studies, as far as Ron concerned, was kind of a waste of time. So far, all they'd done was talk more about British wizarding history that wasn't covered in their History of Magic class. Hermione apparently loved the class, but she was also in the muggleborn section, and they were learning different things. Hermione had waxed eloquent about the wonders of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and the influence of religion on the implementation of the Statue of Secrecy and the following isolation of the Wizarding World from the muggle world.

She'd initially been quite angry that the purebloods and halfbloods had been separated out into different Wizarding Studies classes, then Ron pointed out that a lot of the information that would be new to muggleborns was stuff people raised in the Wizarding World were already familiar with. Hermione had acknowledged his point, and immediately questioned why Harry was in Ron's class section instead of hers. Ron hadn't had a good answer to that - Harry was muggle-raised, so it would have made sense for him to go into the muggleborn class section. Unless…

Ron looked around the room. Out of the entire class, everyone was pureblood, with the exceptions of Roger Malone and Harry. Malone was from Gryffindor, and apparently had some sort of scheduling issue that put him in the class. Out of the rest of the class, only four of the purebloods weren't related to families with seats on the House of Lords - Mandy Brocklehurst, Megan Jones, Morag MacDougal, and Olivier Rivers. Although, for the case of MacDougal and Rivers, MacDougal's father sat on the Trifecta, and Rivers was a cousin of the wealthy French Delacour family.

It was odd, really, that so many Wizengamot heirs had class in the same room, and Ron had a feeling it wasn't a coincidence, especially given that the upper years had etiquette lessons as part of their Wizarding Studies class. There was definitely some manipulation going on, and Ron had a feeling he wouldn't like what he learned if he were to investigate the matter.

A/N: Hope everyone is enjoying the fic!